Greedy Trial Lawyer
Meet Judge Truth-Speaker
Category: In Your Face
A New Jersey trial judge mistakenly believes he was appointed as a truth-speaker who can proclaim his version of how things are or should be whenever his tongue is ready and not otherwise occupied.
Free-Tongued New Jersey Judge Suspended Without Pay
The New Jersey Supreme Court suspended a state court judge for 30 days without pay, ruling that his outspokenness violated the code of judicial conduct.Superior Court Judge Bill Mathesius, 66, reportedly was nicknamed Wild Bill for his intemperance when he was a federal and county prosecutor. He apparently didn't tone it down after being appointed to the bench in 2002.
"Judge Mathesius presents an almost indecipherable riddle," the court's opinion said. "On the one side," it said, the judge had been portrayed as "a longtime public servant who is learned in his craft, willing to assist his colleagues and generous with his time and knowledge." But "on the other side," the court said, was "indisputable proof of repeated and unremorseful instances of petulance, sarcasm, anger and arrogance."
Among the incidents: After a criminal trial he told the defendant after a not guilty verdict to "thank God that this jury didn't see the forest for the trees" and then entered the jury room and, according to one juror, "asked us what the hell we were thinking about."
In a statement, Judge Mathesius said the charges "involve no allegation of criminal or civil wrongdoing, no personal misbehavior, no embarrassing conduct -- in short, no allegations remotely involving moral turpitude." He added: "I have, however, spoken and written what I believe to be the truth, and to that I plead guilty."
Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
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